


Melancholia

by Languorous_Sky



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Day At The Beach, F/M, Melancholy, Sadness, characters depicted as adults, internalizing emotions, mentions of adult situations, pondering about life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 05:30:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15357321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Languorous_Sky/pseuds/Languorous_Sky
Summary: Sometimes, forever lasts only a second.





	Melancholia

“Karai.”

“Hm?” she continued reading her book without looking up at him, stretched out on her stomach over the beach towel, freckles dusting her shoulders.

Leonardo loved those freckles. He could spend hours counting them, fingertips ghosting over the expanse of her bare skin.

“Do you want to get married?” he asked, his voice a deep rumble, barely audible over the crash of waves on the shore.

For a moment Karai tensed up. She lowered her book and looked back at him over the rim of her sunglasses.

Leonardo was sitting half turned away from her, facing towards the ocean, his arm resting over one bent knee as he leaned forward, eyes looking out over the horizon. His surfboard stood forgotten in the sand. The sun had almost set, a tiny orange circle melting into the ocean as the remaining light shimmered, casting a golden bridge over the surface of the water. The sky danced in hues of deep purple and pink.

Leo’s bandana was tied over his bicep, tails fluttering in the evening breeze. Karai had told him to leave it in the bedroom of their private suite but he refused to. She didn’t argue. That piece of fabric was a part of him, no matter if it was tied over his eyes, his arm or tucked into his belt.

Karai shifted, body turning slightly towards him, the wide brim of her sun hat casting a shadow over her face in the fading light. She removed the glasses and searched his face for clues. Leonardo was sitting right next to her and yet he was miles away, his gaze fixed on some point in the distance she could not see.

“No.” Karai replied after several minutes. The turtle showed no indication of having heard her. He didn’t even seem to breathe, sitting like a statue, perfectly still save for the bandana tails that kept gliding over the breeze in slow motion. He suddenly looked ancient to her, a creature out of his time. Forever graceful.

It was unnerving.

Karai’s fingers twitched, having the sudden urge to touch him, and with it came the mental image of Leonardo scattering like sand, seeping through her fingers.

She blinked.

After a while Karai added, “You know I’m not the—“

“—marrying kind.” Leonardo finished for her. There was a ghost of a smile at the edges of his lips as he slowly turned to look down at her lithe form, the statue suddenly alive again.

Karai held his gaze, her own face the usual mask of indifference. Her lips twitched once but she kept quiet.

She wouldn’t ask. He wouldn’t elaborate. There was no point.

There was only this moment in time, shared together. No plans for a future, no happy ever-after. Not for them. There was only this one, clear reality, however long it lasted - maybe a day, a month, a year… Maybe forever.

Till one betrayed the other.

Blade between ribs, blood oozing in slow rivulets.

A choked laughter.

_“I told you so.”_

And then…

An empty void.

Karai blinked again, pushing the images aside.

There was an unspoken understanding between them. No name to what they had - it was what it was. On and off. A constant clash and explosion, with quiet interludes like this one. A secret sanctuary where time and space didn’t seem to exist. She had the means to provide this privacy and he asked no questions as he followed her.

The sun had long set while they held the silence. As her gaze shifted slightly from his, Karai could pick out the first stars on the cloudless expanse behind him. The turtle’s form was slowly sinking into the shadows, with just the faintest silhouette contouring him against the night sky. His eyes shone in the dark, the quiet contemplating gaze slowly giving way to hunger.

The shadow moved and bent over her body. Karai closed her eyes and lay back.

Leonardo made love to her under the stars that night, his body undulating like the ocean, calm yet fierce, and all she could do was let go and be carried by the waves.


End file.
